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Day: July 12, 2018

How the EPA and the Pentagon Downplayed a Growing Toxic Threat

Bridge Agents

US (ProPublica) – The chemicals once seemed near magical, able to repel water, oil and stains. By the 1970s, DuPont and 3M had used them to develop Teflon and Scotchgard, and they slipped into an array of everyday products, from gum wrappers to sofas to frying pans to carpets. Known as perfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, they were a boon to the military, too, which used them in foam that snuffed out explosive oil and fuel fires. It’s long been known that, in certain concentrations, the compounds could be dangerous if they…

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Breastfeeding Has Been the Best Public Health Policy Throughout History

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United States (Conversation) – Breastfeeding has long been the gold standard for infant nutrition. The American Academy of Pediatrics, American Academy of Family Physicians, American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, and World Health Organization all recommend it. Thus, the recent New York Times report of U.S. interference in the World Health Assembly’s attempt to adopt the resolution that “mother’s milk is healthiest for children and countries should strive to limit the inaccurate or misleading marketing of breast milk substitutes” alarmed many concerned about public health. As a pediatrician and a…

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Why School Vouchers are a Terrible Idea

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(Garrison) – For nearly four decades, since the Reagan administration, some among America’s “school choice” movement have advocated for the use of “voucher” systems to give parents more control over their children’s education. Various jurisdictions around the country have implemented the concept, with varying (and much-debated) results. Most opposition to vouchers comes, as one might imagine, from supporters of government-run, aka “public,” schools for the vast majority of  students. Their concerns include loss of funding for those public schools as students migrate to private alternatives, the destruction of America’s secular…

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